If you are a new user of Kodi, or you have little experience setting up the Music section, then it is important that you followed Steps 2 (Music Settings) & 3 (Music File Tagging) of the guide.

A reminder of the following:

Ensure the setting Fetch additional information during updates is disabled

Ensure you have taken care to correctly tag your music. If you haven't... then you are about to find out what happens.

2 Adding Music to Library

Populating the music library is a two step process.

The first step reads the tags embedded in the music files. This is referred to as scanning. If there is any embedded artwork, this will also be scanned and cached.

The second optional step fetches additional artwork, artist and album information. This information and artwork can be downloaded from either online sources or fetched from local nfo files. This is referred to as scraping and is covered in detail in the next step of the guide.

2.1 Initial Set Source & Scan

Allows Kodi to scan the tags in the music files and import that data into the library (Steps 6-7)

A brief introduction to navigating the Music Library (Steps 8-9)

Step 1: On the Home menu highlight Music from the menu items, then move across and select Enter files section

Step 2: In the Music File Browser select Add music.

Step 3: In the Add music source window select Browse. You can also manually add your source by selecting the box with <None> then typing in your path. If you chose to do it this way skip to Step 5

Step 4: In the Browse for new share window, navigate to where your music is stored, select the folder and then select OK.

Step 5: You will now be taken back to the Add music source window. Under Enter a name for this media source you can optionally name your media source to replace the suggested name. Select OK

Step 6: You will now be asked if you wish to add your media source to the library. If you do, then select Yes, if you do not, then select No. By selecting No you will only have the option of accessing your media though the Music file browser

Step 7: If you selected Yes Kodi will begin scanning your source to the library. Once finished, you can back out to the Main Menu.

Step 8: Once your library is scanned you will be able to see & access Recently added albums, Random albums, Random Artist & Unplayed albums on the Home menu.

You will also be able to view your entire music library by selecting Music from the Home menu, then selecting the appropriate category. Or from the Home menu, navigate to Categories at the top of the Music menu item and then selecting the category you wish to view. Example: Category → Albums.

Example: Category → Artist.

At this point you should have a functioning Music Library

2.2 Adding Additional Music Sources

To add additional sources to your library, from the Home menu select Music. Then navigate to the to the top of the page and under Categories select Files. Then follow the directions from Step 2 in Initial Set Source & Scan

2.3 Scan to Library

Image 1

Image 2

In step 6 above, you were asked Do you want to add the media from this source to your library? If you selected NO and would now like to add the music files into the library, follow these steps:

Navigate to and enter Files as illustrated in Image 1

Highlight the source to be scanned

Call up the Context Menu (Image 2)

Select Scan item to library (Image 2)

Your music files will now be scanned and the data contained in the embedded tags will be added to the libraryIf you answered Yes to the question in step 6 above, there is no need to perform this step. If you do perform this step, there are no consequences and Kodi will only search for new files added since the last scan.

Note: In v18 it will be possible to request a rescan of all tags. Useful if you have modified tags.

3 Remove A Source

Image 1

Image 2

To remove a source, follow these steps:

Navigate to and enter Files as illustrated in Image 1

Highlight the source to be removed

Call up the Context Menu (Image 2)

Select Remove source (Image 2)

A confirmation prompt will display- Are you sure? Yes / No

Select Yes to remove the source

Select No to cancel the procedure

If you selected Yes you will then be asked Do you want to remove all items within this path from your library?...

Yes- Will remove all songs from the library that were located in that source, and the associated Artists and Albums if they do not appear on any other source

No- Will keep the library listing of all music that was in that source.

Note: If you answered No but would now like to remove the items from the library...

Re-add the Source following the directions above.

Answer No when asked Do you want to add the media from this source to your library

Follow these instructions to again remove the Source ensuring you select Yes to remove items from the library

4 Troubleshooting

4.1 Library contains random or duplicated entries

This is a result of errors in tagging.

Take note of the errors and correct them by following the recommended procedure in the previous step of the guide- Music Files and Tagging

Once errors are corrected follow the steps detailed in Remove A Source

Re-add the source using the Initial Set Source & Scan procedure detailed above

4.2 I cannot add a source on my network

Seek further information in Section 5 - Network Sources, below

If you have successfully scanned your music library, then you can safely ignore the next section and proceed to Scraping Additional Music Data